THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: Most folks believe Albert Pujols will collect his third NL MVP award when the winner is announced tomorrow. However, I think some were surprised last week when neither Chris Carpenter nor Adam Wainwright picked up the NL Cy. Assuming you believe Albert will win the award, what player(s) could jump up and possibly lay claim to this year’s NL MVP?

DERRICK GOOLD
I’m not sure there is a warped case or arcane number out there that can find a player more deserving of the NL MVP. It just doesn’t compute. Prince Fielder probably has the most attractive blend with his NL-best 141 RBIs and those 46 home runs that put him one behind Albert Pujols. Ryan Howard has claimed the MVP before with a strong finish, and it’s possible his 19 home runs and 63 RBIs in the season’s final two months — for a team pushing for a postseason berth — will attract a fair amount of votes this year, too. Those are the two players who could. The question who SHOULD brings a different answer. Hanley Ramirez plays a premium position and won a batting title. That’s an intriguing combination any year, and it’s one that should have won Joe Mauer an AL MVP award long before today. But the real answer to the SHOULD question is found in Philly: Second baseman Chase Utley, the best player the Philadelphia Phillies have had for several years, has seen two teammates win MVPs and it long past his turn. Pujols may be atop a majority of the 32 ballots tomorrow, but Utley should be close behind him.

BERNIE MIKLASZ
Chase Utley would be the obvious second choice. The Phillies’ second baseman is a terrific run producer and defender and he remains ridiculously underappreciated by voters — whether they be writers or the managers and coaches who vote for Gold Gloves.

RICK HUMMEL
There is zero chance that anybody else will win the award. The only question is whether Pujols will receive all 32 first-place votes and, it says here, that he will. The only debate will be who finishes second: Hanley Ramirez, Ryan Howard or Prince Fielder.

KEVIN WHEELER (Host of “Sports Open Line” on KMOX)
There isn’t anyone who can claim the award over Albert and he should get all 32 first-place MVP votes. If anyone other than Albert gets a first-place vote it would be a vote cast with an agenda, in my opinion. Hanley Ramirez, Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder are the other players who seem likely to finish near the top in the MVP race but none of them can lay claim to having had the season Albert did.

Ramirez led the league in hitting but doesn’t have the power numbers to hang with the big boys this year, plus his team was not a playoff contender. Howard and Fielder had the requisite numbers to enter the fray, though Pujols led the Majors with his 1.101 OPS, but other things work against them. Some would argue that Howard isn’t even the MVP of his own team, though I think he is, and Fielder’s team was not in the playoff mix. Toss in the fact that Albert is better than Fielder and Howard in every other aspect of the game (fielding, base running) and it should be a runaway.

THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: As the Phillies head to their second consecutive World Series it raises the question, “What does Philadelphia have that the Cardinals do not?”

DERRICK GOOLD
Where to begin? How about where the difference is the greatest? The lineup. The Phillies have one of the deepest, one of the most power-packed and actually one of the most underrated lineups in baseball. Chase Utley may be the most complete lefthanded-hitter in the National League. Ryan Howard, Mr. September to the locals, is a power threat that is emerging as a Mr. October. Jimmy Rollins is a former MVP (Matt Holliday was robbed!) and a switch-hitting speed threat. And if the number of elite hitters doesn’t reveal the gulch between the depth of the Phillies’ lineup and the Cardinals’ lineup, consider Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth are complementary hitters in that lineup — and would be linchpins of the Cardinals.

Too much of the Cardinals lineup is isolated around one bat swinging well. His name: Albert Pujols. The Phillies have many players who can spark a rally, continue a rally or invent a rally on their own. They don’t need three hits to score one run. They often need one hit to score three runs. It’s easy to take potshots at the studio they call a ballpark and acknowledge that it adds to the Phillies’ power threat. But here’s the thing: Take away the power, and the Phillies still have the balance and depth to bombard teams anywhere else, too. The Cardinals just don’t have that many dimensions to their offense.

BERNIE MIKLASZ
The Phillies had a much deeper and stronger lineup. If you go by combined onbase + slugging percentage (OPS), the Phillies have the edge over the Cardinals at six of the eight positions. (We’re not counting the pitchers’ batting performances in this statistical breakdown). The only spots where the Cardinals had the better OPS than the Phillies this season were first base and shortstop. The Phillies ranked in the top 5 in the NL in OPS at six positions, and were No. 1 in the league at second base and right field. Their outfielders, overall, were No. 1. They were No. 2 in OPS at center field and fourth in OPS in left field. The Cardinals lagged terribly in the position-by-position OPS rankings at third base (15th), center field (13th) and right field (12th) and were mediocre in left field (8th) and second base (8th). St. Louis outfielders overall were 12th among 16 NL outfields with a .743 OPS — or 108 points less than the OPS generated by the Phillies’ outfield.

The Phillies also led the NL in slugging percentage and had a lot more danger in their lineup from top to bottom, finishing with nearly 100 more extra-base hits than the Cardinals.

Finally, there was a huge disparity between the teams in their batting performance against LH pitching. The Phillies were the league’s second-best team in OPS vs. LH (.787) and the Cardinals finished last in OPS vs. LH (.674).

RICK HUMMEL
The one thing the Phillies have that the Cardinals don’t have is damage up and down their lineup, from No. 1, where Jimmy Rollins hit 21 homers, to No. 8, where Carlos Ruiz has been a postseason star. Also, they seem to be better hitters with men in scoring position.

JEFF GORDON
Run production! That lineup wears out pitchers. There is danger everywhere. How many at bats would Chris Duncan, Rick Ankiel, Joe Thurston, Khalil Greene, Troy Glaus, et al, have earned in that group? Fans clamor for a one big hitter to protect Albert, but the challenge is to assemble a dangerous attack, one through eight. The Cards can move in that direction, even without Holliday, by weeding all their .230 hitters off the roster.

KEVIN WHEELER (Host of “Sports Open Line” on KMOX)
Power, speed, offensive depth, better left-right balance in the order and better defense. The Cardinals pitching is a little better on the whole but not by all that much.

The Phillies hit 40 percent more home runs (224 to 160) than the Cardinals, plus they stole 59 percent more bases (119 to 75), walked 12 percent more often (589 to 528) and they had a higher OPS (.781 to .747). In fact, Philly ranked 1st in the NL in OPS and HR while finishing 2nd in steals. They had four 30 home run guys this year (Howard, Utley, Werth and Ibanez) compared to one for the Cards (Pujols), which pretty much paints the picture for you.

In fact, 7 of their 8 “everyday players” reached double digits in home runs (Rollins had 21 as the leadoff man) and the only guy who missed out, catcher Carlos Ruiz, hit 9 homers despite missing 55 games.

The Cardinals had a strong team, one whose pitching carried them over the course of the long 162 game season, but the Phillies have a dynamic, explosive team and one that is better suited for a playoff run.